Sometimes nihilism gets the best of me. What is the point of anything anymore? We're all just bags of meat that will die and feed worms when we are done. It's times like this where finding music that reflects this great void really resonates with me. Banished form Time appears to be one of those albums.
I normally don't like this band. Every single thing I've heard from them has fallen flat with me. Either the riffs don't stand out, the vocals don't do anything for me, or some other unknown force gets me to the point where I turn Black Cilice off after a few minutes. That is not the case with Banished From Time.
What takes me aback about this album is that the formula established on previous albums is directly carried forward here. The production is exceedingly raw. The vocals are howled into a cave with a microphone placed twenty meters away. It's hard to make out anything but the blur of riffs and distant banging of blast beats. This is about as raw as it gets while still being somewhat discernible.
I truly don't know what I like so much more about this album than the rest of Black Cilice's discography. Maybe there is more urgency to the songs? Maybe the riffs are written slightly better? Maybe the songs are arranged a bit better? Maybe it just clicked where the others didn't? Who knows... what I do know is that this album kicks ass.
Raw black metal has a special place for me. When it is done well it fucking slays like no other genre does. In the whirlwind of noise and muck there are instruments that reward the listener for their patience.
This is not easy music to get into. You have to sift through layers upon layers of horrid production until you get to the real meat of the music. But in doing so the music takes on a unique character. It fully embraces the inaccessibility and obscurity of the music. Maybe that's why I like it so much when I feel like there is no point to anything. It rewards me for my listening efforts.
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